SUSIE GHARIB: The election drama is not over. Political turmoil turned the stock market inside out today with triple-digit losses, after advisors for Vice President Al Gore indicated that they would wage a legal fight for the White House. By the closing bell, the Dow recovered, losing only 72 points, and the NASDAQ slipped by just 31. Well then late this afternoon, Florida election officials said that the recount is still not done, and won't be completed until next week. They said with 79 percent of the recount complete, Governor Bush was ahead by 1,784 votes; but the unofficial tally by the Associated Press, showed that Bush lead with only 362 votes, with 97 percent of the districts counted. Darren Gersh takes a look now at the intensifying battle over Florida's election results.

DARREN GERSH, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: When the Gore campaign stepped before the microphones this afternoon, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 10,761. Then campaign chairman, William Daley demanded a hand recount of close to two million Florida ballots. The Gore campaign also called the design of the Palm Beach County ballot, "illegal," and said it would support a court challenge.

WILLIAM DALEY, GORE CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN: If the will of the people is to prevail, Al Gore should be awarded a victory in Florida; and be our next president.

GERSH: When the news conference was over, the Dow had fallen another 105 points.

BRIAN FINNERTY, INVESTMENT STRATEGIST, C.E. UNTERBERG, TOWBIN: The market felt, "oh boy, this thing is more and more uncertain; this thing is going to drag out even longer than we think; look out below."

GERSH: The market later recovered, but if there was ever any doubt, it is now clear: the intensifying political struggle is troubling investors, and the uncertainty may continue to worry the markets, even after the next president is chosen.

TOM GALLAGHER, POLITICAL ECONOMIST, INTERNATIONAL STRATEGY & INVESTMENT: If it's Bush, the fact he didn't win the popular vote would taint his leadership. If it's Gore, the fact that he might win on a technicality could undermine his effectiveness.

GERSH: After the markets closed, the Bush campaign fired back, accusing the Gore camp of distorting the election process. Earlier, the man the Bush campaign has sent to oversee the recount dismissed charges the Palm Beach ballot was unfair.

JAMES BAKER, BUSH CAMPAIGN REPRESENTATIVE: It's a ballot that's been used before; it was approved by an elected democratic official; and there were no complaints when, in accordance with Florida law, everybody had a chance to complain.

GERSH: It now appears that uncertainty may drag on at least until November 17 when Florida's absentee ballots are totaled. Bush economic adviser, Lawrence Lindsey said markets might react if the process drags on.

LAWRENCE LINDSEY, BUSH ECONOMIC ADVISER: I think uncertainty about the election is one thing. I think if this were to drag on for weeks and weeks and be litigated, that markets might be troubled, but I don't think that that's going to happen.

GERSH: The Bush campaign is painting Gore as I sore loser; the Gore campaign portrays Bush as premature. The markets wish this would be over, far sooner than it looks like it will be. Darren Gersh, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Washington.

Nightly Business Report transcripts are available on-line post broadcast.  The program is transcribed by FDCH. Updates may be posted at a later date. The views of our guests and commentators are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc., Nightly Business Report, or WPBT. Information presented on Nightly Business Report is not and should not be considered as investment advice. © 2000 Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc.

SUSIE GHARIB: Well, as the election cliffhanger continues, what's the impact of this on the stock market? Joining me live in New York to answer that is Ralph Acampora, Chief Technical Analyst at Prudential Securities. Boy, what a day, huh?

RALPH ACAMPORA, CHIEF TECHNICAL ANALYST, PRUDENTIAL SECURITIES: Oh, it's exciting.

GHARIB: Exciting depending on which side of this your observing.

ACAMPORA: It's like watching the World Series going into extra innings. And when you do that the tension mounts. I think the realization of the reality that they actually could take it to court, and, you know, I'm a political expert, they might, we initially reacted several hundred points. I think maybe that's behind us a little bit. There will be a lot more volatility.

GHARIB: But given the latest news that we have that this election recount is going to drag into next week and also the indications from the press conferences today that Democrats are going to dig in for some kind of a legal challenge here, what's the political impact of that on the markets?

ACAMPORA: Well, I think that the stocks that are effected, what's that, like the drug stocks if Gore gets in or the aerospace stocks, the defense stocks, if Bush gets in, I think they are the ones that are going to be pushed and pulled. The problem with technology that we've had in the last couple of weeks has actually nothing to do with the political scene. So, let's not confuse it all.

GHARIB: But let's talk about, yesterday a lot of the investors were betting that it was a Bush win and so the drug stocks went up, the HMOs went up, the tobacco stocks. Today those were all loses. I mean what is that telling you?

ACAMPORA: Well, that's a great question, because- but they have been going up for a while now, so the expectation has been there for a while that Bush may be, and I think today them backing off is maybe an indication that, you know, that there is a little uncertainty here, especially after the Democrats made their stand.

GHARIB: All right, but combine that, we have the political uncertainty. This could go on, some political experts are saying this might drag on into December. Combine that with the slowing economy, some of the earnings warnings that we've been getting, a generally weak stock market, what kind of damage might this have on the market?

ACAMPORA: Well, actually, seasonally we should be in a rally mode. You know, usually after the presidential election cycle you get what we call a honeymoon rally. What it will do, it will kill that rally for a while until it's settled. Now the question is does is take the Dow to new lows, does it take the NASDAQ to new lows? Well, I am letting the jury, you know, stay out on that one. That, to me, would be significant if the NASDAQ were to close below 3,000.

GHARIB: All right, so if there is-

ACAMPORA: That or if the Dow will get down to 9,700. But you'll see it consolidate.

GHARIB: All right, now you've been very bullish. You came out with this new book called "The Fourth Mega Market," saying the bull market is going to continue for 11 years. But short-term, between now and the end of the year, what are your targets for the Dow and NASDAQ?

ACAMPORA: Well, I started the year with 12,500 to 13,000 for the Dow. I haven't changed that. I'm going to leave that alone. I still think this presidential election cycle could carry into late this year, assuming that this problem is out of the way for a while, into early next year. It's possible.

GHARIB: Right. So what should investors do short-term, right now?

ACAMPORA: I think they definitely should be rethinking their portfolio and, you know, this, we're all in love with these technology stocks. I think you have to start unthinking that because what's happening, it's value stocks are back, stocks like waste management, some of the insurance stocks, some of the electric utilities, some of the banks. Please, some of these technology stocks are much too early to buy.

GHARIB: So what are you saying, investors should now, with this political uncertainty, since we don't know the results of this, should they sell, should they be buying, should they just sit back and wait?

ACAMPORA: No. If it's just for a political thing, I'd just, I say tough it out. But if it's for a portfolio that's heavily weighted in areas that I think are vulnerable, by all means take advantage of any kind of strength to lighten up. And I would zero in on these technology stocks. Susie, I don't think the problem is over yet there. You know, the NASDAQ is down 40 percent from the high. So it's officially in a bear market.

GHARIB: So it's still a little too rich?

ACAMPORA: The rallies that we have had this summer and the pre-presidential election rally have been very anemic for the picking.

GHARIB: A real quick question. Whether it becomes President Bush or President Gore, either one of them is going to have a very, a tight Congress and not a broad mandate. What does that mean for the stock market going forward?

ACAMPORA: Oh, I hope it's gridlock all over again. You know, we talk about it but actually it does work and it has worked for the last two administrations. So, I want the gridlock. It's OK.

GHARIB: We'll see what happens. Thank you so much, Ralph, for coming buy.

ACAMPORA: Nice seeing you.

GHARIB: Nice seeing you on NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT. And my guest tonight, Ralph Acampora of Prudential Securities.

Nightly Business Report transcripts are available on-line post broadcast.  The program is transcribed by FDCH. Updates may be posted at a later date. The views of our guests and commentators are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc., Nightly Business Report, or WPBT. Information presented on Nightly Business Report is not and should not be considered as investment advice. © 2000 Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc.



11/09/00: The AOL/Time Warner Deal Is In A Holding Pattern

JEFF YASTINE: America Online (AOL) and Time Warner (TWX) are offering new concessions in exchange for regulatory approval of their merger. That, as the Federal Trade Commission met today to consider blocking the $129 billion deal. The Commission now says it will take up to three weeks to study the company's latest offer. Stephanie Woods reports.

STEPHANIE WOODS, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: The blockbuster merger between America Online and Time Warner was supposed to done by now. Negotiations with regulators at the Federal Trade Commission have been tense since September. Analyst Bill Wyman says its nothing less than brinkmanship.

WILLIAM WYMAN, ANALYST, LEGG MASON PRECURSOR GROUP: Both sides holding onto the tables with white knuckles hoping the other one is going to blink first.

WOODS: The key sticking point is how to open Time Warner's high speed network to competitors. A settlement being negotiated would require Time Warner to open its high speed cable lines to Internet competitors before AOL can offer service. That would mean AOL would have to give up first mover advantage in Time Warner cable markets.

WYMAN: I think AOL, given their tremendous brand of broader function of content than anyone else, great distribution, they can play catch up if they have to.

WOODS: Any settlement has broader implications for the industry. Many observers believe whatever AOL and Time Warner ultimately agree to will become the standard for ATT (T) and other cable companies.

GENE KIMMELMAN, CO-DIRECTOR, CONSUMERS UNION: While AOL is the biggest Internet provider and therefore gets special treatment in its merger review, the principle that's established, open, non-discriminatory treatment of independent video providers and Internet providers should be applied to all cable companies.

WOODS: The Federal Trade Commission is ready to sue to block the deal if the companies don't come up with an acceptable solution within the next three weeks. AOL and Time Warner still say they expect to close their deal this fall. Stephanie Woods, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Washington.

Nightly Business Report transcripts are available on-line post broadcast.  The program is transcribed by FDCH. Updates may be posted at a later date. The views of our guests and commentators are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc., Nightly Business Report, or WPBT. Information presented on Nightly Business Report is not and should not be considered as investment advice. © 2000 Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc.


11/09/00: Prime Mover: Martin Brauns, CEO, Interwoven

SUSIE GHARIB: Interwoven (IWOV) is threading its way through the World Wide Web and it's leaving no strand undone. Its President and CEO Is Martin Brauns. The company's flagship software is called TeamSite and it manages the development and maintenance of e-business Web sites. This five year old California based firm has branches in the United States and overseas and trades on the NASDAQ under the symbol IWOV. Interwoven's third quarter revenues were over $39 million, a gain of an impressive 816 percent over last year. It has a market cap of over $5 billion. In tonight's prime movers segment, Suzanne Shaw of Myprimetime.com asks Brauns what his chief concern is going forward.

MARTIN BRAUNS, PRESIDENT & CEO, INTERWOVEN: The biggest thing we're worried about here, Suzanne, is execution, just running fast, you know? We just finished 816 percent year over year growth and trying to continue at somewhere near that pace given that the base of revenue keeps growing, right, that's the big challenge. So hiring more salespeople, opening more foreign subsidiaries, innovating product faster, those are all of the issues we worry about day in and day out. Execution.

SUZANNE SHAW, MYPRIMETIME.COM: Among Martin Brauns' clients, General Electric (GE), whose 300 Web sites are managed by Interwoven enabling some 6,000 GE contributors to quickly add and change content. Interwoven also manages the complex Web sites of Cisco (CSCO), Ford (F), Boeing (BA), eBay (EBAY) and Yahoo! (YHOO).

BRAUNS: The core product is the same. It's called TeamSite. But it is enterprise software that's heavily adapted to their businesses. So those are all very different companies and we work with each of them individually to map the product into their business process and what's called their work flow, the way content is approved before it goes on the Web site. It's very different at GM (GM) and different again at United or American Airlines. And so we do very much custom tailor these solutions to their businesses.

SHAW: Why is this business of content management so explosive?

BRAUNS: Well, at the highest levels, Suzanne, everyone is moving their business, some or all of their business processes to the Web, whether it's for revenue generation or self service customer inquiries or supplier connectivity with their supply chains. And as they do that, they are creating mountains and mountains of content. It could be text, it could be audio, it could be video. Not uncommon to have 10, 15, 20 million files or pages of content. And you can imagine what a management challenge that is. So everyone is moving to Web, creating a lot of content and that content has to be managed. And that's what we do with our Interwoven Team Site product, we manage that process.

SHAW: Interwoven has offices in Europe and Asia-Pacific. Now, what's your overseas growth like?

BRAUNS: It's the fastest growing piece of our business. So we're a high growth company and the biggest component of growth actually is the international business.

SHAW: Why is that? Why are you growing faster there?

BRAUNS: I think some have said that the European and Asian customers were late to embrace the Web and that may actually be true, but what I see now is some very thoughtful and strategic, well thought out strategies where they are really going at it in a very principled way, mapping out a content management layer and building applications on top of content management. And so that serves us well.

SHAW: What is the most important quality you look for in hiring, especially senior managers?

BRAUNS: I look for failure well assimilated. So I look for executives or middle managers who have stumbled, maybe even stumbled badly at some point in their career, and then I ask a lot of questions about what did you get out of that, what did you learn, what would you do differently if you were put in that same situation. And then I just listen for, you know, what kind of willingness to grow and to learn and to change is there. So that's what we are looking for here, bright, flexible, collegial people who can learn and evolve themselves.

SHAW: Martin Brauns, CEO of Interwoven, thank you.

BRAUNS: Thank you.

Nightly Business Report transcripts are available on-line post broadcast.  The program is transcribed by FDCH. Updates may be posted at a later date. The views of our guests and commentators are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc., Nightly Business Report, or WPBT. Information presented on Nightly Business Report is not and should not be considered as investment advice. © 2000 Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc.



11/09/2000: Paul Kangas' Wall Street Wrap Up

JEFF YASTINE: Another ugly day for the markets, as that election uncertainty, and once again, earnings fears, hammered stocks hard. All the major markets opened lower, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was no exception. It dropped sharply at the opening bell, hurt by selling in IBM (IBM) shares, but then found some stability as buyers stepped in. By noontime, the Blue Chip Index was about 55 points off the pace. The NASDAQ was in much the same situation, peaking about 11:00 a.m. and then falling steadily; its final plunge began with those comments from the Gore campaign. But that 240-point drop in the Dow was too much for bargain hunters. And that fresh buying, along with perhaps some short-covering, helped push the Dow off its lows, going on to close down 72.81 points at 10,834. In today's 288.5-point range, the Dow closed down about 73 points from the best level of the session, and up nearly 216 points from that low. The NASDAQ Composite falling 31 1/3 points to close at 3200. In its 145-point range, the Index settled 30 points below its high of the day.

Volume, 1.1 billion shares exchanging hands; that's well over 200 million shares above yesterday's pace. And down volume clearly reflecting the negative sentiment today.

After a 2 1/2 week run, the Dow Transports are slipping 25 ¾ points lower.

But the Utilities advancing 2 1/3 points.

And the Closing Tick mildly bullish at +584.

Each of the S&P Indexes facing down for the day.

The 500 and 100 having very similar drops.

And the MidCap losing 7 3/4 points.

The Bridge CRB Index slipping 1/4 point as well.

Meanwhile, the New York Stock Exchange Composite Index, the Value Line, the Russell2000 and Wilshire 5000 - each falling about one percent on the day.

After the close, the Federal Reserve reported in the week ending October 30, the M-2 money supply fell $9.1 billion.

Bonds finished higher as investors focused on today's Producer Price Index, which showed that core producer prices, which exclude food and energy costs, fell by 0.1 percent last month. Economists had been expecting a gain of the same amount. The Treasury was also in the market today, with a buyback of $1 1/4 billion in long-term debt. Those events helped offset further weakness in the dollar, no doubt a reaction to the prolonged situation with the presidential election.

Corporate issues rose a fraction, munis were unchanged, and Treasures gained across the board.

The 5-year note rising 6/32.

The 10-year note gaining 11/32.

And the 30-year bond rising 7/32, with the yield at 5.87 percent.

And the Lehman Brothers Long Bond Index gained about 7 1/2 points.

Shares in Disney (DIS) sliding space mountain style, losing just under $6. You heard the story from Susie there.

Nortel Networks (NT) retreating $1.69.

EMC (EMC) falling $3.63. The Schaeffer's Investment Research analyst repeated a "sell" recommendation on EMC after the stock broke key support levels.

The bears getting the best of Best Buy (BBY), the stock falling $20 in reaction to a profit warning about the second half. Results for the third quarter expected to fall 38 percent below Wall Street estimates of $0.44 a share.

AT & T (T) falling $0.81.

Compaq (CPQ) ending off $2.25.

And Lucent Technologies (LU) slipping $0.75.

Meanwhile Corning (GLW) rising $2.50, shareholders approving a plan that would triple the number of shares authorized to 3.8 billion shares.

Citigroup finished down $0.38.

And America Online (AOL) dropping $3.62.

Among the widelies, Coca-Cola (KO) ending up $2.13, among the few gains in the Dow, perhaps a defensive play there for some investors.

Fox Entertainment Group (FOX) falling $2.94, Standard & Poor's cutting next year's earnings estimates because higher programming costs caused first quarter TV profits to fall 46 percent.

Hewlett-Packard (HWP) back pedaling 2 3/4.

Home Depot (HD) falling $2.44. Lehman Brothers and Deutsche Bank Alex Brown remain optimistic that Home Depot will meet third quarter profit estimates when results come out next week.

News Corp. (NWS) down $5.13. First quarter profits of $0.14 a share, those were right in line with Street estimates but Disney's mediocre guidance today perhaps dragging down News with it.

Safeguard Scientifics (SFE) tumbling $2.69. The high tech incubator's third quarter loss of $0.22 a share. More growing pains for Internet startups and also a 19 percent decline in revenues.

Gainers were sparse, but there were a few, British Energy PLC (BGY) picking up $1.75. Shares rising $1.13 yesterday after the company promised higher future dividends.

Western Resources (WR) gaining $1.94 on news that Public Service New Mexico (PNM) will acquire Western Resources' utility operations for $1.5 billion in stock.

Trigon Healthcare (TGH) rising $6.19. Bear Stearns impressed with the company's healthy quarterly results and increased its price target to $75 a share.

Rayovac (ROV) gaining $1.13 juiced by record fourth quarter earnings of $0.44 a share, way up from $0.17 a year ago.

Retailers, well, they were just sitting ducks today. Shopko (SKO) buckling $1.88. The specialty retailer's third quarter loss reached $0.29 a share.

TNPC (NPW) falling $2.69 after posting a large third quarter loss and projecting a loss of $1.02 a share in the fourth quarter. This is the parent of the new power company.

The NASDAQ Composite falling 31 points to 3,200 even today. Volume at 1.9 billion shares. Decliners had an easy 2 to 1 lead over advancers. Starting to see some scattered bargain buying in the high techs today.

Sun Micro (SUNW) ending off $2.69.

But Cisco Systems (CSCO) rising $1.13.

Juniper Networks (JNPR) falling $8.50.

Microsoft (MSFT) up $1.44, shareholders rejecting the software giant's first resolutions that would have forced the company to detail political campaign donations.

Broadcom (BRCM) gained more than $10 today.

PMC-Sierra (PMCS) climbed $14.5